The final 2025 meeting for the CAPC on Dec. 18 mostly concerned reports from Finance Director Ty Reed and Tourism Director Mike Maloney.
Reed reported that bank accounts for the CAPC were at $1,680,000 with November collections at $244,000 with a budget of $230,000. Year-to-date collections were at $1,940,000 with a budget of $1,944,000. Expenses for November were $185,000 with a budget of $191,000 and a year-to-date total expenses of $2,440,000 with a budget of $2,427,000.
Reed also showed a breakdown of month-to-month collections with cumulative collections at $1,751,000 compared to last year’s $1,779,000.
After the main body of the financial report, commissioners got back onto the topic of past due or delinquent tax collectors. Reed told commissioners that three businesses were now considered being under “pursuing legal action” which Tourism Director Mike Maloney clarified meant the CAPC would be suing them. Reed said that the CAPC attorney sent process servers.
Commissioner David Avanzino asked if, since the failure to pay, may be considered tax fraud was there some way to get the state involved. Maloney said he’d have to speak with council on it, but in speaking with the CAPC’s lawyer, the next step is to file a legal lawsuit against the businesses. Discussion bounced back and forth on the cost to enter lawsuit and whether the CAPC would incur more cost than funds retrieved from a lawsuit, and options the CAPC has beyond lawsuit to recover owed tax funds. Commissioners also discussed, as in previous meetings, whether the CAPC has the right to shut a business down for failure to pay taxes with Maloney saying that it’s best that the commission take legal counsel’s advice on what to do moving forward.
In the Director’s Report, Maloney went over plans for the NYE Bash with a Splash activities including where the event would be streamed live as well as money given by the state to broadcast the event. Maloney shared a mix of website, Search-Engine-Marketing, and Meta Prospecting before taking a moment to discuss visit spend and transaction data the CAPC received through Epsilon Data Management. The data showed information regarding how much visitors spend per person in categories such as Dining, Accommodations (lodging), Retail, and others.
Maloney ended the report thanking staff for taking part in holiday events the CAPC has put on as well as the technical crew and others that worked hard through December for events in the Auditorium.
Other Items
- Goggles, Gears, and Springs as well as Carving in the Ozarks both received $5,000 in marketing support for their April 2026 events. The CAPC had to make a motion to increase the marketing support budget by $3,712 to fulfill both requests without having to postpone one to the next support approval meeting in February. It was noted by multiple commissioners that were either made to wait for approval they would no longer be fulfilling the requirement for approval two months prior to the event.
- Commissioner Heather Wilson mentioning her support of the bonuses given to staff, saying that staff goes above and beyond their job description. She said she did not want to fall in the trap that recognizing staff takes away from residents. She also mentioned Mayor Butch Berry’s talk on the 2024 referendum issue on that the impact of CAPC reaches beyond the tax dollars. Wilson said about staff that she is “grateful of their efforts and proud of what this town has accomplished because of them.”